Self-sufficient aldehyde deformylating oxygenases (ADOs) from Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942 fused to alternative electron transfer systems were successfully designed, constructed, characterized and used for efficient conversion of aldehydes into alkanes for the first time.

The recA gene of Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7002 was detected and cloned from a lambda gtwes genomic library by heterologous hybridization by using a gene-internal fragment of the Escherichia coli recA gene as the probe. The gene encodes a 38-kilodalton polypeptide which is antigenically related to the RecA protein of E. coli. The nucleotide sequence of a portion of the gene was determined. T...

Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus picocyanobacteria are dominant contributors to marine primary production over large areas of the ocean. Phytoplankton cells are entrained in the water column and are thus often exposed to rapid changes in irradiance within the upper mixed layer of the ocean. An upward fluctuation in irradiance can result in photosystem II photoinactivation exceeding counteracti...

The euryhaline, unicellular cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7002 produces the dicyclic aromatic carotenoid synechoxanthin (chi,chi-caroten-18,18'-dioic acid) as a major pigment (>15% of total carotenoid) and when grown to stationary phase also accumulates small amounts of renierapurpurin (chi,chi-carotene) (J. E. Graham, J. T. J. Lecomte, and D. A. Bryant, J. Nat. Prod. 71:1647-1650...

The genomes of the two closely related freshwater thermophilic cyanobacteria Synechococcus sp. strain JA-3-3Ab and Synechococcus sp. strain JA-2-3B'a(2-13) each host several families of insertion sequences (ISSoc families) at various copy numbers, resulting in an overall high abundance of insertion sequences in the genomes. In addition to full-length copies, a large number of internal deletion ...

Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus are the most abundant photosynthetic organisms in oligotrophic waters and responsible for a significant percentage of the earth's primary production. Here we developed a method for metagenomic sequencing of sorted Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus populations using a transposon-based library preparation technique. First, we observed that the cell lysis techniqu...

BACKGROUND As autotrophic prokaryotes, cyanobacteria are ideal chassis organisms for sustainable production of various useful compounds. The newly characterized cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus UTEX 2973 is a promising candidate for serving as a microbial cell factory because of its unusually rapid growth rate. Here, we seek to develop a genetic toolkit that enables extensive genomic engi...

A 36 kDa polypeptide which previously was shown to be present in purified photosystem II complexes from Synechococcus PCC 6301 and which crossreacts with the antiserum raised against the soluble L-amino acid oxidase o f 50 kDa from Synechococcus PCC 6301 (A. E. Gau, G. Wälzlein, S. Gärtner, M. Kuhlmann, and E. K. Pistorius, Z. Naturforsch. 44c, 971, 1989), was isolated from thylakoid membranes ...

The extension of ecological tolerance limits may be an important mechanism by which microorganisms adapt to novel environments, but it may come at the evolutionary cost of reduced performance under ancestral conditions. We combined a comparative physiological approach with phylogenetic analyses to study the evolution of thermotolerance in hot spring cyanobacteria of the genus Synechococcus. Amo...

Synechococcus is an abundant marine cyanobacterium that significantly contributes to primary production. Lytic phages are thought to have a major impact on cyanobacterial population dynamics and evolution. Previously, an investigation of the transcriptional response of three Synechococcus strains to infection by the T4-like cyanomyovirus, Syn9, revealed that while the transcript levels of the v...